


The Beholder's Eye

by Serenitys_Lady



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-27 02:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15014372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenitys_Lady/pseuds/Serenitys_Lady
Summary: It’s all in the Eye of the Beholder





	The Beholder's Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: There are slight references to the Ten/Donna audio stories “Time Reaver” and “Death and the Queen”. If you have not heard them, do yourself a favour. They are delightful.

Donna Noble never considered herself particularly feminine.  Most people who knew her would probably have agreed.  They saw her as loud, aggressive, and common.   _‘Bolshy’_  was the term that was generally applied.  She wasn’t anything special, just a temp from Chiswick, able to type 100 words per minute, explain the  _off-sides_  rule in football, and drink most junior executives under the table.  She was a disappointment to her mother, a source of derisive amusement to her so-called friends, and the busty ginger who was expected to offer sexual favours to the few men she had allowed to get close to her.  
  
It was no wonder that she had felt worthless, insignificant and useless.  
  
The Doctor saw a completely different person when he viewed Donna.  He saw her brilliant mind, her dazzling smile, and her boundless capacity for empathy and compassion.  He had witnessed countless acts of bravery and selflessness, and had become dependent on her wisdom and perspective.  She was his companion in his long, lonely journey through the Universe, his moral compass, the Jiminy Cricket to his manic Pinocchio.  He could count on her to remind him of the smaller details in the bigger picture, the human aspect, the right thing to do.    
  
She told him once he needed to find someone, someone who could stop him when he needed reigning in.  After reuniting with her at Adipose Industries, the ease with which they fell back into their companionship and the sense of  _rightness_  proved to him that he hadn’t needed  _someone_ , he needed  ** _HER_**!  He was thrilled – and grateful but he would never tell her that – she found him again.  
  
He knew what she thought of herself, and made it his mission to convince her otherwise.  He complimented her often, which she shrugged off with a muttered  _‘Oh, don’t talk wet’_.  He pointed out her strengths and reminded her constantly that she was brilliant.  She never quite believed him.  
  
The one thing he rarely mentioned was her appearance.  He was aware that she saw herself as an overweight, middle-aged spinster with no redeeming qualities beyond the aforementioned bosom.  Dressing in oversized jumpers and loose jeans and trousers, she presented herself as a frumpy, unremarkable woman.  But she was anything but.  She would never believe him if her told her how attractive she was, how much he admired her lustrous ginger locks.  She had the most beautiful porcelain skin and blue-gold eyes that could ensnare a person, even one as jaded as a centuries-old Time Lord.  She moved with a grace that belied her self-deprecating image of the lumbering temp.  
  
He told her she looked lovely when they visited the 1920s and Agatha Christie.  He could have said much more, but felt it prudent not to push the issue.  He had some trouble disguising his appreciation of her wench costume as they dashed about on Calibris.  Even the hideously overblown wedding gown he found her in on Goritania couldn’t hide her natural beauty.    
  
But he could never tell her.  
  
He could never proclaim her a goddess in his eyes, never praise her figure or compare her to the Warrior Maidens of Herioth, who were renowned for their strength and almost-blinding beauty.  At best, she would just scoff at him, swat his arm and call him a prawn.  At worst, she would assume he was making fun of her and storm off in a huff, refusing to speak to him for days on end and bristling at any future compliments.  
  
No, the Doctor would never reveal the depth of his feelings.  He would sit by and silently appreciate the rare good fortune the Universe has bestowed on him, in the form of the alluring, indomitable Donna Noble.  He would continue to provide whatever approbations he could and hoped that, someday, she would realize what a truly remarkable woman she was.  
  
It was all in the eye of the beholder.  The Doctor was smitten, and she would never know.


End file.
